Manao

Manao is the extinct Arawakan language once spoken by the Manaos along the Rio Negro in western Brazil; in it the people's own name meant mother of the gods, and from them comes the name of the city of Manaus.

The Manaos resisted Portuguese slaving raids and missionary work, attacking the Fort of São José da Barra do Rio Negro and, under their leader Ajuricaba, patrolling the river to stop colonial vessels sailing upstream.

The last major war against them ended in the 1720s, when Ajuricaba was captured and drowned himself on the way to trial at Belém while two thousand of his people were sold into slavery. In 1819 the German botanist von Martius encountered the last recorded Manaos band on the Rio Negro, the final attestation of the people and their tongue.